I've been watching a lot of Asian horror lately. I love it but it's hard to watch while you're doing other things because you have to watch the screen for the subtitles. And I refuse to watch dubs since they usually don't sound very good. I like Asian horror because in general they rely on practical effects instead of CGI overload.
Ghost Train wasn't great but it wasn't terrible, either. First off, don't read the synopsis. It is so far off from the main story. The plot of Ghost Train is this: A spirit of a woman who was killed by a train leaves her stuff on the train and platform. When Random Traingoer picks it up the spirit comes for them to reclaim its property.
The pacing is really, really weird and the hauntings, spirited aways (and returns) don't seem to make any sense. When they get returned they're something akin to zombies but they're not. It's not even really clear on if they are returned to normal after the haunting/curse is resolved. There also are weird time passages. For example: Nana's sister goes missing and it seems to take Nana a couple of days to start looking for her. Nana also takes a time out for her and Kanae to go for coffee and chat and become friends. The subplots don't go anywhere and the character interactions seem really off.
The one relationship that is developed well is the friendship between Kanae and Nana. They frame it more of a romantic friendship which I liked. The actress who plays Kanae (Chinatsu Wakatsuki) also played in a movie called Ju-Rei that was really good and I think she's a pretty good actress. Her character wasn't very developed in Ghost Train but she did what she could with it. The sets are very strange as well. Everything is empty. Even the train platform has only one person on it. That just seems weird to me. It looks like a fairly large city and the streets are literally empty.
The ending seems abrupt and also has an odd resolution that presents more questions than answers. Did the haunting actually begin with this person? Because she looks pulled down by a disembodied hand. And it's never explained. A random character is introduced near the end which seems a bit cheatery and while her role does make sense it also raises even more questions.
All in all it's a decent movie that is worth a watch but there are far better ones to enjoy. Like the aforementioned Ju-Rei.
